Yes!
by enBERG
Summary: What if the answer to Joseph's question was yes instead of no? A one shot, complete. Not too much fluff. Clarisse and Joseph always! Rated T to be sure.


What if the answer to Joseph question was yes instead of no? A one shot. Not too much fluff.

**Yes! **

"Have you been thinking about us?"

Clarisse smiled into Joseph's chest. She was expecting this question for days now. Even with the wedding and Amelia's coronation coming up she couldn't stop thinking about Joseph. And she knew, but the way he looked at her, that there was little else on the forefront of his mind as well.

She had debated and debated with herself during the day and at night. And she saw a big mountain of problems, issues, unhappy parliament and maybe even an unhappy Pierre and Amelia. But she also felt that not being with Joseph just wasn't an option.

While they came to a hold, she was very tempted to have Joseph wait even longer. But she could not get that over her heart. Still she decided to keep him a little bit in the dark for just a few minutes.

Her head still on his chest and her eyes downcast she said: "I was thinking that we should have a quite long engagement period."

She felt Joseph's hands move around her face and he tilted her head so that she was facing him. Joseph looked at her with a brilliant smile.

"You make me so very happy Clarisse. I can't tell you how much."

Leaning into his chest again she felt very happy herself. For a moment they just stood there, arms around each other. She had her arms around Josephs waist, while he pulled her close at her shoulders.

"Why do you want to have a long engagement period? How long is long?" He asked.

"Well. For two reasons. The first reason is to grant you time to come up with a decent attempt for a wedding proposal". She chuckled.

He moaned. "It wasn't the best timing, so much I will confess."

"It's not only the timing. With decent I also mean more flowers, rings and talk about romance and less subjects such as knee surgery and friendships coming out of shadows."

While she talked, she felt Joseph move his hand trough her hair. Suddenly he twirled her around and she let a giggle escape from her throat. After two spins he let her down to the floor again and the stood back into the original hugging position.

While moving his hand over her shoulders he said: "Okay, reason one accepted. I will come up with a better proposal soon. What about the second reason?"

Clarisse felt her happiness drop a few levels. She pushed her face even harder into Joseph's chest.

"Let me guess" he filled in. "You are afraid of what will happen, what they will say, what everyone will think. You feel that a longer period will give everyone and ourselves the change to get used to us being together."

"Partially" she answered in a low voice. "I care about parliament and the crowd. It has been my duty for years to act like a queen. To set aside my personal needs. But I made the decision that that time, very soon, is over. It won't be easy, but I need to make room for you in my life. I love you Joseph. I want to marry you. We've been in difficult situations before, I think we can handle whatever parliament and the people come up with."

She noticed that the smile on Joseph's face became even bigger. But she sighted before she continued talking.

"What I am really worried about is the reaction from people that I love. Amelia. Pierre. The staff. What if they stand against us being together? That will break me."

She felt tears escaping trough her eyelids. They fell on Joseph's black attire and left wet marks on his chest.

Joseph shifted under her touch. He held her at arm's length so that he could look at her. "Should we try and take the fear away quickly? Because I must confess that I feel the same. Especially about the princess."

Clarisse wiped away her tears with her hand and thought about Josephs remark for a few seconds. Then she replied "Would it be fine for you if we sat down with Amelia this evening? You are right, we need to get rid of the biggest issue."

"I must say that the thought makes me nervous strait away, but I think it's the best way moving forward from here."

"Good" Clarisse answered, "let's do it that way."

"I know that there are a lot of details to discuss, but for now I have two questions remaining."

Clarisse held out her hand to Joseph and he took it. Her hand felt small and surrounded by the warmth of his. She nodded as to ask him to continue with his questions.

"How long is long?" Joseph was still smiling, but Clarisse noted a serious undertone in his voice. "Now that you agreed to become my wife, I feel I don't want to wait."

"I gave it some thought already" She really hoped that he would agree with her idea, that she did not stretch his patience too much. "I was thinking to announce our engagement officially a month after the coronation."

Joseph nodded.

"And then to get married at Christmas day. This year I mean."

Clarisse looked at Joseph intently to see his reaction. She was relieved again to see that the smile was still there.

"You keep surprising me" he replied while pulling her into a tight embrace. "With all your talk about a long engagement I feared that you wanted to wait for years. But Christmas is so close, I…."

Clarisse interrupted him saying "You agree with the date then?"

"Yes, yes, I certainly do. I can't believe that you really said yes."

Clarisse decided to tease a little bit. "Well actually I did not speak out loud the word 'yes'. I am still awaiting a very romantic wedding proposal."

Joseph for the second time this evening cupped her head and tilted it so that she was facing him.

"And when I ask you, and count on it that I will do it very soon, very romantic, with flowers and a beautiful ring, I rely on it that you will say the word out loud."

Putting her hands over his and stroking them with her thumbs she gave him her most beautiful simile as an answer.

"Which brings me to my second and final question for now" Joseph said, his hand still touching her face. "I desperately want to kiss you right now. Can we go somewhere where we can be sure we don't get company?"

Without a moment of hesitation, she leaned forward and moved her hands towards Joseph's shoulders. When her lips connected with his she first felt him holding back. But after a few seconds he crushed her against his torso and kissed back with passion. After a minute they had to break apart to breath.

"What do you say to this." She had a coy smile on her face. "First you help me to select a table setting for Amelia's wedding and then we take a walk through the garden before we talk with Amelia."

He nodded and with that it was set.


End file.
